William Nothdurft, a prolific and prizewinning author of nonfiction books as well as novels spanning several genres, died on June 19, at his home on Vashon. He was 75 years old.

His death was caused by complications from lymphoma, said his son, Eric Nothdurft.

On Vashon, the author’s home since 2007, he was known by his pen name, Will North, which he adopted in the second act of his career — a feverish burst of creativity that began when he was almost 60 years old and led to an output of seven novels in 15 years.

Will’s last book, “Murder on the Commons,” published in 2021, was the fourth in his series of Davies and West Mysteries, all set in one of his favorite places on earth — England’s atmospheric and remote county of Cornwall.

While almost all of Will’s novels were set in the United Kingdom, including his first, “The Long Walk Home,” there was one notable exception: his third novel, the family drama, “Season’s End,” was set, without disguise, on Vashon.

In the book, Will’s writing took flight as he described a sunrise over his beloved adopted hometown of Burton: “…as the light strengthened, he could see, atop an old guano-stained piling only 50 yards offshore, the motionless American eagle that spent mornings at slack tide scanning the still water for foolhardy young salmon lounging near the surface.”

Will’s career as a writer began in the 1970s, when he worked in Washington, D.C., after earning a master of arts degree in journalism at Penn State. He was a writer and senior policy analyst for the Carter administration, and later, for think tanks that helped develop environmental policy. In this work, his son Eric said, his father excelled.

“He was known as ‘the alchemist,” said Eric, describing his father’s renown for his ability to analyze and translate raw data into compelling prose in policy statements.

His success in the field led to two of his most remarkable career milestones: being the ghostwriter for “Between Hope and History,” by Bill Clinton, and “Common Sense Government,” by Al Gore. Both books were written during the time that Clinton and Gore served as president and vice president of the United States.

Becoming a sought-after ghostwriter, Will was also hired for such high-profile nonfiction projects as “Ghosts of Everett,” an acclaimed book by a team of famous mountaineers, as well as books by dinosaur hunters, a renowned physician, and others.

In a Beachcomber interview in 2014, Will described his turn to writing novels as unexpected.

“Fiction just showed up — like a gatecrasher or unexpected guest,” he said, “and then the stories kept coming.”

His son described it in a different way, however.

“All of his writing flowed sort of effortlessly,” Eric said. “He could have kept writing policy and ghostwriting for people — he was excellent at it, but I think it just came to a point when he said, ‘I’m done writing for other people.’”

On Vashon, Will also generously shared his talent in a long-running series of witty and erudite commentaries for The Beachcomber, which began in 2008 with an essay, written in seven parts, called “The Anatomy of Home.”

The essay — which was recorded in its entirety for Voice of Vashon and can be listened to at ​​tinyurl.com/jfhkkf59 — served as Will’s introduction of himself to his new neighbors.

In it, he detailed the profound sense of immediate belonging he had felt in only two of the many places he had visited and lived — first in the United Kingdom, a place he had journeyed to many times, and then, years later, on Vashon.

Will’s Beachcomber columns also frequently mentioned the irreverent and tight-knit band of friends he typically started his days with on Vashon, at the Burton Coffee Stand.

For Will — an urbane Easterner who once jokingly lamented, in a Beachcomber commentary, that he had just donated his custom-made, Bill Blass tuxedo to Granny’s Attic, the road to life on a rural island in the Pacific Northwest had not been straight or narrow.

Will was born in Yonkers, New York, on April 4, 1947, the son of William Nothdurft, a businessman who struggled with alcoholism, and Hazel (Kaufman) Nothdurft, who worked as a secretary for S&H Green Stamps. His younger sister, Nancy, was born in 1951. The family lived in a cramped one-bedroom apartment, said Eric.

In one of his first Beachcomber columns, Will described the deteriorating neighborhood of his childhood as a place that no one would call beautiful.

“But from our little apartment, I had a panoramic view of the majestic Hudson River, and on the opposite shore, the forested basaltic cliffs of the Palisades,” he wrote. “And ever since then, my sense of natural beauty has required expanses of water and greenery.”

In the late 1960s, Will’s horizons expanded, as he attended the State University of New York at Albany, now called the University of Albany, where he graduated summa cum laude with a degree in English in 1970.

The previous year, he had married a classmate; their son, Eric, was born later the same year. Also, in the late 1960s, Will made his first, revelatory trip to England.

Eric recalled many subsequent trips he took with his father to the United Kingdom, including those accompanied by Gwen Pfanku, who Will had married in the mid-1980s, after his divorce from Eric’s mother, Susan Nothdurft.

With Pfanku, Eric said, Will wrote three popular guidebooks to Britain.

In the early-1990s, Will moved from the East Coast to Seattle, where he wrote for Mountaineer Books. He and Pfanku divorced in the mid-1990s.

In 2009, while happily ensconced on Vashon, he married Susan Bates, an ex-pat Londoner he had met on his first trip to the island, while out for a stroll on the Burton Loop. Together, the Anglophile pair lived in Burton, happily goading their neighbors by doing such things as flying their Union Jack flag at half mast on the Fourth of July.

Bates, as did Eric, recalled Will’s passions and the comforts he found on Vashon: his daily discipline as a writer, his love of cooking, his tenderness with pets, his flair for interior design and his delight in gardening.

Though Bates and Will also divorced in 2018, their relationship continued, Bates said.

“The friendship got better — we still loved each other and we were better not being married,” she said.

Will also maintained his friendships with his comrades at the Burton Coffee Stand, said one of the group, Jeff Hoyt. Even as his final illness progressed, Hoyt said, Will still showed up at the coffee stand, holding a piece of paper on which he had written a question, in the style of the “Jeopardy” game show, which he challenged his friends to answer.

Even as his health deteriorated, Hoyt also said, Will had maintained his wry sense of humor. Days before his death, Hoyt recounted, Will had told islander Colby Atwood, who was his landlord, that he thought his end was near — a dire pronouncement that he quickly followed up with good news.

“But I’ve decided to leave you this house,” Will said.

Will North is survived by his son, Eric Nothdurft, and his grandson, Baker Nothdurft, as well as a legion of friends and fans. A memorial for Will North will be held from 2 to 5 p.m., Sunday, Aug. 7, at Mukai Farm & Gardens, at 18017 107th Ave SW, Vashon.

Corrections: The print edition of this article, published July 21, contained a misspelling of Susan Nothdurft’s last name as well as a misspelling of the last name of Gwen Pfanku. Additionally, it stated in error that Will was the editor-in-chief of Mountaineers Books. Will wrote for the publishing company.